New CrossroadsTransitions & Transformations

Science Librarians in the 21st Century

Mary M. Case

University of Illinois at Chicago

Overview The crisis in transition Transformative changes Future roles for librarians

Average Journal Prices

$0.00

$100.00

$200.00

$300.00

$400.00

$500.00

$600.00

$700.00

Science

Social Sciences

Humanities

Sticker Shock: $12,495

http://www.englib.cornell.edu/displays/stickershock/default.html

OR

Includes Primary & Secondary STM publishing.

Aggregators represent an additional $1.6 billion (Total: $9.5 billion.)

Source: Outsell Inc., "Industry Trends, Size and Players in the Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) Market (Aug. 2000).

Commercialization

Elsevier Science

-10.00%

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Operating Margin Revenue Growth

Price per Page

$0.00

$0.20

$0.40

$0.60

$0.80

$1.00

$1.20

For-profit Not for-profit

Source: Carl Bergstrom, [octavia.zoology.washington.edu/publishing/pageprice_table.html]

Price per Citation

$0.00

$0.50

$1.00

$1.50

$2.00

$2.50

For-profit Not for-profit

Source: Carl Bergstrom, [octavia.zoology.washington.edu/ publishing/pageprice_table.html]

Biomedical Titles 1988-1998

0.00%

50.00%

100.00%

150.00%

200.00%

250.00%

Price Citations Papers

Nonprofit CommercialSource: Mark McCabe, ARL 207

We’re able to access more throughConsortia dealsE-only access

Bundles

We continue to spend more

Lower cost-per-subscription

Median Journal Prices All Subjects

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Pou

nd

s

Elsevier

Nature

Kluwer

Lippincott

Springer

Blackwell

Sage

T&F

OUP

Chicago

Cambridge

JHUP

Source: White & Creaser, Oct. 2004

Scholarly Journal Prices, White & Creaser, Oct. 2004

Median prices of Humanities and Social Sciences titles tend to be lower than those in other subject categories.

Overall, there is little evidence of a relationship between impact factor and price of biomedical journals.

No evidence was found to suggest that different rates of price increases had prevailed in the 1990s compared with those experienced after 2000.

There is some evidence of the application of ‘blanket’ price increases by some publishers across the range of titles and subjects.

Transformative Trends Open/Public Access Mass Digitization Federated Searching Disciplinary Changes “Digital Natives”

Open Access

Defining open access: Open access articles are freely available immediately upon

publication “to anyone, anywhere, to download, print, distribute, read, and use without charge or other restrictions, as long as proper attribution of authorship is maintained.” PLoS Biology, v.1, no. 1, p. 1

Available on the public internet for reading and citation at some interval after publication

Open access could transform science by making it possible to navigate, integrate, mine, annotate, and map connections in the literature

Advantages of Open Access

Expanded access to research

Expanded impact of research

Reduced systemic cost

Accelerated innovation

Lawrence, Steve (2001). “Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact.” Nature, Vol. 411, No. 6837, p. 521 <www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/Articles/lawrence.html>

Public Access NIH New Public Access Policy

Grant recipients & NIH researchers Deposit in PMC within 12 mos of publication Request

Wellcome Trust (UK) Grant recipients Deposit in PMC or UK PMC within 6 mos of

publication Requirement

Open Access Journals

DOAJ = 1600+ titles Quality assessments

PLOS Biology - impact factor #1 in general biology journals

BMC titles increasing in rankings, with 5 in the top 5 of their specialties

Open source software options for journal publishing

Digital Repositories Increasing implementation of institutional

repositories Disciplinary vs. Institutional

Not incompatible Virtual disciplinary communities Virtual journals

Content, policies, marketing E-publishing software integrated with IR’s

Other Trends Mass Digitization Federated Searching Big Science “Digital Natives”

Roles for Librarians Educators/advocates for Change Agents for Dissemination & Archiving

Institutional repositories Electronic publishing infrastructure Facilitating Pubmed Central deposit Distributed print repositories

Monitors of disciplinary, technological, demographic changes

Partners in Research and Teaching On research teams Online & blended learning design, implementation, & support

Roles for Librarians Contributors of unique resources to global

digital library Process hidden collections Digitize unique and special collections

Organizers and quality filterers of information Simple, effective search engines Clear and easy-to-interpret interfaces Humans connecting humans with information and

technology

Challenges

Integration/compatibility of various systems - seamless integration

Metadata creation Archiving, archiving, archiving Developing staff with appropriate skills